Etiological study of profound deafness in deafened-school children

Two Hundred and twenty three children with childhoodwere included in this study. They were collectedrandomly from children of deaf schools in Alexandria and Zagazig.~ey were subjected to complete history taking and audiologicalinvestiga tions.103 cases had genetically determined deafness, 12 cases weredue to prena tal causes, 20 cases were due to perina tal causes, 45were due to postnatal causes and,43 cases wi th••••••uniden tified etiology.190 cases had deafness prelingually, 25 cases perilinguallyand only 8 cases had postlingual deafness.Consanguinity was found to be the most important factor inthe genetically determined deafness, Rubella was the mostimportan t prena tal cause of deafness, perina tal hypoxia was foundto be the most important perinatal cause of deafness and meningitis was found to be the most important cause ofpostnatally acquired deafness.